The Substation/ Artist/Caitlin Franzmann/
Caitlin Franzmann is a Brisbane-based artist who invites people to slow down, listen and contemplate interactions with their surroundings and with other living entities, including plants, insects, water, rocks and micro-organisms. She creates intimate situations within galleries and public spaces that allow for gathering, conversation and storytelling as a way to encourage reflection on histories, complex ecosystems and environmental concerns specific to a place.
Caitlin has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at National Gallery of Victoria, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and Kyoto Art Centre. She was included in Primavera 2014: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Passages at New Museum, New York in 2020, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria and Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art at QAGOMA, Brisbane in 2022. She was recipient of the 2014 Churchie National Emerging Art Prize and recently awarded the inaugural Metro Arts Visual Arts Pathfinder Program residency (2022-2023). Caitlin was a member of feminist art collective LEVEL from 2013 to 2017 and is currently a member of, Ensayos, a collective research practice centered on extinction, human geography, coastal health and peatland conservation.
Related/
Outdoor Billboard Gallery
Recompose
PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION
Recompose is a new series of six works by Caitlin Franzmann on display at The Substation outdoor Billboard Gallery that invites contemplation of small worlds at our feet.
Focused on processes of decay and transformation of a forest understory, Recompose was originally presented as a deck of divination cards. This imagery is now blown up in scale to grace the exterior side of The Substation's building, viewable from the the Werribee and Williamstown train lines and the adjacent public footpath.
Pencil drawings on the cards depict organisms present in the leaf litter, soil and fallen logs of an east coast subtropical rainforest – decomposers such as fungi, bacteria, worms and insects that play a critical role in both nutrient management and carbon cycles.
Recompose was originally created in 2021 for Final Call, an initiative of Horizon Festival curated by Megan Williams and presented in the natural environment of Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Gardens.
Recompose celebrates the magic and wonder of decomposition to consider how it isn’t just the end of everything—it is also the start.
ABOUT THE BILLBOARD GALLERY
The Substation Billboard Gallery is located outdoors on the east wall of the building, parallel to the train line. Read on for access and travel information.
ENHANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE
In addition to experiencing the works at The Substation, you can view the entire deck of cards online. The website also offers a unique reading that responds to the survival mechanisms and ecosystem interactions of the decomposer that choses you.
